SESSION EIGHT MUSIC IN THE YEAR 1939 Friday, May 1, 2015 TODAY S AGENDA THE NATIONS IN 1939 By 1939 the western world was convinced that another war was imminent. Ever since Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933, he had aggressively demanded more lebensraum and rapidly developed Germany s heavy industries and re-armed the German military machine. All of these actions were in flagrant disregard for terms of the Versailles Treaty, het he encountered no effective opposition. Other European nations despaired that Hitler could not be stopped, and feared that his demands would soon lead to war. Various treaties of mutual protection were signed, but few believed they would intimidate Hitler or slow his desire for the domination of Europe. The United States, slowly recovering from the great depression and widespread environmental problems, was strongly opposed to further entanglements in a European war. The majority of congress opposed this involvement. President Roosevelt was probably more inclined to support our World War I allies but felt his political options were extremely limited. Germany had made a remarkable, almost miraculous economic recovery from 1933 to 1939. Adolf Hitler and his National Socialist German Workers Party Nazi for short had moved quickly and brilliantly to provide jobs and capital to restart Germany s heavy industry, and unite the people behind a nationalistic propaganda agenda that promoted the superiority of the German people and created a common enemy the Jews- to rally German patriotic fervor. At the same time, Hitler ignored or circumvented provisions of the Versailles Treaty and created a modern, mechanized military designed to move aggressively on land and sea, and in the air. All this in six short years. The Soviet Union, under the leadership of Joseph Stalin, had begun a period of internal repression, now called the Great Terror, in which thousands of Russians were tried and convicted, then either murdered or banished to work camps in Siberia and other remote locations. The Soviet Union was lagging behind in its planned economic development and felt completely unprepared to fight another war, especially against the modern military forces of 1
Germany. It tried to ward off any attack by Germany by signing a mutual non-aggression pact with Hitler, but few believed this pact would survive Hitler s ambitions to dominate Europe. France, also suffering from the world-wide economic depression, managed to strengthen its army and navy. At the same time, it greatly strengthened the Maginot Line, an underground series of tunnels, railways and munitions storage units built on the site of the greatest battles of World War I. France considered the Maginot Line impregnable against Hitler s military machine. England, also attempting to recover from economic and political turmoil, was unprepared to defend itself. In these dark days England had three hopes, long-shots at best: 1. The development of new aircraft to defend England against possible invasion 2. The belief that the British Empire could be mobilized in time to avoid invasion 3. The vague hope that the United States could be persuaded to come to England s aid if war actually did break out. Italy was under the political rule of Benito Mussolini, whose Fascist government was intent on promoting economic recovery and expand Italy s overseas empire (and famously, made Italian trains run on time). These were the hopes, fears, and plans of the leading nations when the Second World War began on September 1, 1939. Against this background of almost-war, let s examine the state of music in 1939. ARAM KHACHATURIAN PIC Khachaturian was the Soviet-era composer of the first rank who was not an ethnic Russian, and it is a testimony to his talent that during the interwar era he ranked as part of the big three Soviet composers, alongside Prokofiev and Shostakovich. Khachaturian was born in Soviet Georgia into a prominent Armenian family. Throughout his life he promoted the folk music of Armenia. He was a prolific composer in all the musical genres. His music was and is popular, not only in Russia but throughout the world. Khatchaturian 2
remained on the good side of the Communist Party throughout his life, except for a year or two after World War II. VIOLIN CONCERTO, 1939 One of the most important compositions of 1939 was Aram Khachaturian s Violin Concerto. It is typical of his output: somewhat conservative in style as compared to that of Prokofiev and Shostakovich, yet catchy, energetic and shot through with the melodies and rhythms of Armenian folk music. Traditional sound: tonal, big orchestra and virtuosic solo part Showy, virtuosic solo violin part Vigorous and energetic Armenian folk music and folk rhythms. While we listen to the Khatchaturian Violin Concerto, we ll take a look at some images of Europe and America in 1939. GALLERY (PLAY DURING) MUSIC IN 1939 We began this course, eight weeks ago, by looking at the state of music in 1919. This afternoon we ll review the state of music in 1939, the end of the interwar period. One can generalize that by 1939 twentieth century music had come of age. The older generation composers, who were the great innovators of the 19-teens and 1920s, had mellowed. The younger generations had grown up with influences such as jazz, impressionism, and the twelvetine method and took these for granted, using them at will but no longer trying overtly to promote them. All the music we ll listen to this week was written in the year 1939, except for one piece, and there is no shortage of masterpieces, from established composers such as the Old Guard German Arnold Schonberg and the Middle Generation Swiss Frank Martin to Middle Generation French Olivier Messiaen, to the Rising Generation American Samuel Barber. COMPOSERS IN 1939 3
Many, if not most, classical composers of 1939 were refugees, now settled comfortably or not so comfortably in nations where they could pursue their work in peace and free from governmental influences. Here is a summary of where composers were in 1939 and where they had come from. ARNOLD SCHONBERG PIC In 1939 Arnold Schönberg was 65 years old and one of the two or three most famous composers in the world. After developing the twelve-tone method of composition during World War I, he had moved to Los Angeles in 1934 and continued to compose. As he matured, his music became somewhat more traditional in sound but lost none of its characteristic intensity. CHAMBER SYMPHONY NO. 2, 1939 The Chamber Symphony No. 2 demonstrates Schonberg s return to a more traditional, less dissonant style. As he famously said: I was not destined to continue in the manner of (my earliest compositions) The Supreme Commander had ordered me on a harder road. But a longing to return to the older style was always vigorous in me, and from time to time I had to yield to that urge. The Chamber Symphony has all the earmarks of Schonberg s style: Short, fragmentary musical gestures Long, emotionally intense melodies in the strings Dissonant yet interesting harmonies A wonderful mastery of orchestration, including interesting and sometimes novel ways of using individual instruments and combining them. FRANK MARTIN PIC Frank Martin was the leading Swiss composer of the interwar period but lived much of his adult life in France, Italy and The Netherlands still another displaced composer, although not technically a refugee. A prolific composer in all genres, Martin later adopted the 12-tone method of composition but in such a personal way that his music does not sound anything like the music of Arnold Schönberg and his followers. 4
BALLADE FOR SAXOPHONE AND ORCHESTRA, 1939 The Ballade is an impressionistic piece written long before Martin embraced the 12-tone method of composition. It seems impressionistic, still another example of the lingering strong influence of Debussy s pre- World War I style. The Ballade is unlike 19 th century concertos in that the solo instrument plays more or less continuously. Thus the piece does not use the backand-forth contrast between solo instrument and orchestra, which is one defining characteristic of the concerto genre. But it does focus on the contrast between orchestra and solo saxophone. By 1939, American jazz had become international jazz, with important musicians and large audiences for it throughout Europe. Would the idea of an extended piece for tenor saxophone have occurred to Martin had it not been for the pervasive influence of jazz? We ll never know for sure, but the cadenzas seem more like jazz than does the rest of the piece. The solo tenor saxophone part is like a rhapsody almost improvisational in style. The big orchestra sounds lean rather than the full, blended sound of 19 th century composers. OLIVIER MESSIAEN Messiaen was a leading composer, organist, and ornithologist a unique, multi-gifted personality. In a manner somewhat different from that of Stravinsky, he was also a composer who was influenced by many different musical traditions, including Japanese music, Roman Catholic chant, Indonesian gamelan music, and the sacred music of the Italian Renaissance. Messiaen taught himself to play the piano when he was a young child, but later studied at the Paris Conservatory of Music. He became a leading organist after graduation, but continued to compose. In the mid-1920s he was a leader in the movement to combat the frivolity and shallowness of much modern French music (previously discussed in Session Five). Messiaen was 31 years old in 1939. He was drafted into the French army in 1939, saw battlefield service in the medical corps, and was almost immediately captured and interred in a German prisoner of war camp, where he continued to compose music throughout the remainder of the war. THE GARDEN WARBLER PIC 5
Here is the cover illustration of one of Messiaen s many books, The Garden Warbler. As an ornithologist he specialized in the study of birdsong, and incorporated birdsongs into many of his compositions. QUARTET FOR THE END OF TIME, 1940 This groundbreaking work has been called the most ethereally beautiful music of the twentieth century. Written in 1940, it was destined to become one of the two or three most influential pieces of music during the second half of the twentieth century. The Quartet describes the enforced introspection and reflection dictated by life in a German prisoner of war camp. It also represents a new genre of composition. It is not a sacred piece in the usual meaning of the term, because it does not have a sacred text (like a mass or cantata), nor was it written to be performed in a religious service. But it was inspired by, and has the serenity and emotional content of sacred music, as you will see. QUOTATION FROM BOOK OF REVELATION Its title comes from a passage in the Book of Revelations: And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire... and he set his right foot upon the sea and his left foot on the earth... And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven, and swore by him that liveth forever and ever... that there should be time no longer. The Quartet is consists of eight sections. Messiaen gave each section a title and a brief description of what he was trying to express. Thus the piece as a whole might be said to tell a story, somewhat like a cantata, except that the story is not a series of outward actions but a series of religious feelings or reflections. MOVEMENT ONE Movement One: Crystal Liturgy: Between three and four in the morning, the awakening of birds: a solo blackbird or nightingale improvises, surrounded by a shimmer of sound, by a halo of trills lost very high in the trees. Transpose this onto a religious plane and you have the harmonious silence of Heaven. PLAY 6
MOVEMENT TWO Movement Two: Vocalise, for the Angel who announces the end of time. PLAY The first and third parts (very short) evoke the power of this mighty angel, a rainbow upon his head and clothed with a cloud, who sets one foot on the sea and one foot on the earth. In the middle section are the impalpable harmonies of heaven. In the piano, sweet cascades of blue-orange chords, enclosing in their distant chimes the almost plainchant song of the violin and cello. Movement Eight: Praise to the immortality of Jesus. PLAY This is a lengthy violin solo, a counterpart to the violoncello solo of the 5th movement. Why this second eulogy? It is especially aimed at second aspect of Jesus, Jesus the Man, the Word made flesh, immortally risen for our communication of his life. It is all love. Its slow ascent to the acutely extreme is the ascent of man to his god, the child of God to his Father, the being made divine towards Paradise. SAMUEL BARBER PIC Samuel Barber identified himself as a composer from age nine. At twelve he completed his first opera, and at fourteen became a full-time student at the Curtis Institute of Music. Barber had an exceptional and very successful career as a composer, right from the start. As one critic said, Probably no other American composer has ever enjoyed such early, such persistent and such longlasting acclaim." Beginning in the early 1930s he wrote a string of successful compositions in all genres: orchestral, choral, vocal, and opera. He won the Pulitzer Prize in music twice, and many of his works received their first performances by leading US symphonies and conductors. Perhaps here is the time to point out a more general situation with classical music in the late 1930s, that sets it apart from music composed in the 1 920s. Samuel Barber and his generation of composers grew up knowing jazz and took it for granted, somewhat in the way that women today take feminism for granted. The result is that, although Barber and other composers may incorporate jazz elements in their music, it is not as obvious or overt as with earlier composers such as Gershwin and 7
Copland. As a result, Barber s music seems more romantic, even more traditional, than the music of jazz-influenced composers of the 1920s. REINCARNATIONS, 1939 Some of Barber s finest compositions were written for chorus. His three Reincarnations of 1939 have texts by the Irish Poet James Stephens. Each piece reincarnates an individual person from Irish history. MARY HYNES TEXT The first Reincarnation is of Mary Hynes, a woman purported to be the most beautiful in all of western Ireland. To express the ecstatic feelings about her beauty, Barber alternatively speeds up the text, then slows it down, then speeds it up again. MARY HYNES She is the sky of the sun! She is the dart of love! She is the love of my heart! She is a rune! (mystery, magic) She is above the women of the race of Eve, As the sun is above the moon! Lovely and airy the view from the hill That looks down from Ballylea! But no good sight is good, until you see The blossom of branches Walking towards you, airily. PLAY ANTHONY O DALY TEXT The second Reincarnation is of Anthony O Daly, an Irish environmentalist unjustly accused of firing a gun at another man. He was eventually condemned, and refusing offers from the guards to help him escape, went quietly and was hanged. The text focuses almost solely on the sense of disbelief at the finality of loss, and the resultant music has certain numbness, as when a totally unbelievable event happens. The basses sit grief-stricken on a single note for a full 41 measures, and when they finally take up the melody, it is transformed into a thrashing torrent of sound which halts on the word grief, a cold silence experienced at the sudden loss of a loved one. ANTHONY O DALY Since your limbs were laid out 8
The stars do not shine! The fish leap not out in the waves! On our meadows The dew does not fall in the morn, For O Daly is dead! Not a flow r can be born! Not a word can be said! Not a tree has a leaf! Anthony! After you there is nothing to do! There is nothing but grief! PLAY 9
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